Abstract

We investigate the photofragmentation of
molecules in a fast-beam experiment. The
molecules are laser-prepared in a single rovibrational state. Neutral fragments are detected in coincidence by a time- and position-sensitive multihit-detector. Triple coincidences from breakup into three H(1s) atoms have been detected for the first time. For each triple-hit, the momentum vectors of the three H(1s) fragments are determined. The 6-fold differential cross section of the fragment momentum components in the center-of-mass frame is then projected to distributions of the kinetic energy release, and the configuration of the fragment momenta relative to each other. The distributions of the fragment momenta are found to be highly structured and to depend sensitively on the
initial electronic state.